From a match-quality
perspective, the second straight night in Korakuen Hall was one of the calmest
nights of the entire tournament. The only match that I would say was really
great as the Main Event, which saw Hiroshi Tanahashi defeat Togi Makabe. These
guys are two of the bigger names on the babyface side of the roster, and they
really put together a great match. While none of the other tournament matches
on this show were bad by any means, they were all decently good. Gallows vs.
Naito was an ok match, but I don’t think anyone saw Gallows actually defeating
Naito, especially with this new heel persona that Naito has (then again,
getting upsets at this point in the tournament really shouldn’t be a surprise).
Then we had Hiroyoshi Tenzan taking on Katsuyori Shibata. This was a good
match, but it didn’t come close to reaching the level of some of the other
matches Tenzan was able to have in the tournament against guys like Tanahashi
& AJ Styles. Once again, we had another shocking result, as Tenzan actually
got Shibata to submit to the Anaconda Vice. The closing stretch of that match
was actually very good.

After that, we got Kota Ibushi vs. Toru Yano. Now, if
there was going to be an upset on this show, it was going to be this match. As
I’ve said before, you can never count Yano out in the G1, as he can beat
anyone. This match definitely delivered an upset, as Yano go the win over
Ibushi in just fifty seconds!!! I know people don’t like seeing Yano in the G1,
but it has to be said that his inclusion always provides for some unique twists
& turns. Then we got AJ Styles vs. Bad Luck Fale in a Bullet Club vs.
Bullet Club match. As you might have guessed, we did see shenanigans, with the
rest of The Bullet Club being at ringside, but it was still a decent little
match. They tried to get Fale to lay down for Styles early, and it looked like
he was going to, but it was a trick, and Fale went right after Styles. The
clocked in at just under ten minutes, and it features a fair amount of crowd
brawling. They were actually able to tell a nice little story, and as the
whole, the match was entertaining to watch. I never would have guessed it, but
they managed to pull it off. Styles would eventually overcome Fale for the
victory.

The third straight show at
Korakuen Hall featured more matches from Block B. As a whole, I thought this
was a great show! While it didn’t quite reach the level of Night 14 (the first
night in Korakuen Hall), it was definitely better than Night 15 (the second
night in Korakuen Hall). The opening tournament match was another Bullet Club
vs. Bulled Club match, as Karl Anderson went up against Yujiro Takahashi. They
basically did something similar to the AJ Styles/Bad Luck Fale match the night
before, with the other members of The Bullet Club getting involved. Anderson,
who has had a crush on Maria Kanellis for several months, was smitten by the
lady that Yujiro brought to the ring, which led to Styles trying to get
Anderson focused on the task at hand. Anderson would eventually go on to defeat
Yujiro in a match that wasn’t very good at all. Thankfully, things only got
better from there. We had a match between Hirooki Goto & Michael Elgin,
which I thought was fantastic!! There was great action from start to finish,
and the crowd was really into it on several occasions. Also, I thought these
two worked pretty well together. Once again, we saw another example of #BIGMIKE
being awesome, and continuing to prove that he belongs in New Japan.

We then
saw Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Satoshi Kojima. This wasn’t a great match (certainly
not as good as some of the other matches on this show), but it was still very
good. I really enjoyed it. Nakamura got the win there. After that, we saw
Kazuchika Okada going up against Yuji Nagata. There actually was a little bit
of build to this match, as Nagata had been doing specific training to counter
The Rainmaker. These two ended up having an awesome match!! Okada delivered, as
he always does, and Nagata looked great here as well. I think Nagata did
counter The Rainmaker at one point, but it wouldn’t be able to counter another one, as Okada would
eventually hit The Rainmaker for the win. The Main Event was Tomoaki Honma vs.
Tomohiro Ishii. These two had an incredible match earlier in the year at The
New Beginning in Sendai 2015 over the then vacant NEVER Openweight Title. While this
match wasn’t nearly as good as that encounter, it was still a fantastic match.
These two were beating the crap out of each other right from the opening bell.
There was a ton of action, and the crowd was really into the match. Of course,
the big story here is that HONMA FINALLY GOT A WIN!!! The crowd in Korakuen
Hall exploded when Honma ended his drought and finally scored his first G1
victory. It was honestly a really great moment, and definitely one of the
highlights of the entire tournament.